[2013.01.11] JACKIE CHAN HEADS FOR 800 MILLION

courtesy of on.cc

The Jackie Chan starred Emperor Motion Picture CZ12 (SUP YI SUN CHIU) as of two days ago made 755 million yuan RMB in the Mainland, surpassed LET THE BULLETS FLY and PAINTED SKIN: THE RESURRECTION (WAT PEI II) and second only to LOST IN THAILAND to become the second highest grossing Chinese film in Mainland history.

The international Superstar Jackie Chan starred Emperor Motion Picture CZ12 earlier accumulated S$2.4 million after seven weeks in release and broke the Chinese film opening week record there.

The film as of two days ago already reached 755 million yuan RMB in the Mainland to become the second highest grossing Chinese film in Mainland history. In first place was the Mainland comedy LOST IN THAILAND, which accumulated 1.178 billion yuan RMB as of two days ago.

When he received the Southeast Asia box office news earlier, Jackie Chan already joked whether he had to take back the idea that CZ12 was his final large scale action film. Now with the Mainland box office success, Jackie Chan of course was happy. His wife Joan Lin (Lam Fung Giu)'s cameo was also rather valuable. Reportedly the film company wanted to make a new film with the original team.

Last year Hong Kong film companies supported pure Hong Kong film productions, obviously admission has increased. Mainland viewer tastes have become more and more distant from Hong Kong's. Last year the Mainland top ten highest grossing films only had three Chinese films, the rest were all Hollywood films. Luckily the box office champion was the domestic surprise hit LOST IN THAILAND as the Mainland managed to save some face.

The State Administration for Radio, Film and Television two days ago held a press conference to announce last year the national total film box office was 17 billion RMB, Chinese film box office was 8.2 billion yuan and Hollywood films had over a half. Administration chief Tong Gang said that last year American film import increased from 20 to 40. As import films further occupied the Mainland market, Chinese film must elevate quality to be able to fend off foreign films.

Many Hong Kong director's co-productions like Derek Yee Tung Sing's THE GREAT MAGICIAN (DAI MOR SHOOK SI), Alan Mak Siu Fai and Felix Chong Man Keung's THE SILENT WAR (TING FUNG JEH), Law Chi Leung's THE BULLET VANISHES (SIU SUT DIK JI DAN), Daniel Lee Yan Kong's WHITE VENGEANCE (HONG MOON YIN), Andrew Lau Wai Keung's THE GUILLOTINES (HUET DIK JI) and Wong Jing's THE LAST TYCOON (DAI SEUNG HOI) did not break into the Mainland top ten.

Film critic Sima Ping Bang said that last year Chinese film had too many rotten films, most had Hong Kong teams like Cecilia Cheung Pak Chi's LEGENDARY AMAZONS (YEUNG MOON NUI JUENG ji GWUN LING YU SAN) and ALL'S WELL ENDS WELL 2012 (BAK SING BO HEI), that making moeny was easy for them as they specialized in swindling Mainland investors' money. In addition, the film bureau this year will set new measures to fight poor quality fake 3D films.